The IEEE 802.11 family of technical standards and attendant technology, also commonly referred to as Wi-Fi, is evolving towards a service-centric model of connectivity where devices connect for a specific purpose. The purposeful connections are triggered by applications looking for networks and/or peer devices that support specific services. Examples of these services include file sharing, printing, media streaming, and the like.
A Wi-Fi connection is typically established after successful completion of authentication, association, and, in some cases, the Internet Protocol (IP) address assignment, after which service data may be exchanged between the devices. There may be a significant amount of signaling overhead and delay incurred by the authentication, association, and IP address assignment procedures, which may only be warranted if the connected device is capable of providing the requested services. To avoid unnecessary delay, a device may conduct pre-association service discovery to identify devices and the services that the devices provide without performing the authentication and association procedures first. Mechanisms for securing pre-association service discovery are desired.